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Creating a debt management plan for your business

30 January, 2013

Starting a business is not an easy task and it requires strong financial support. Most of the time entrepreneurs are forced to take loans for starting a new business or for buying raw materials, but this can lead to big trouble also. The point is that efficient and right kind of financial planning is very important for ensuring the success of any kind of business campaign. There are some situations when you take too many loans and don’t have an opportunity to give them back on time or make the entire financial situation clear. Such cases unfortunately take place when you start a business and have to pay to your creditors. Luckily, debt management plans and other strategies that can be employed for dealing with repaying of loans are present and you can take benefit from them.

What is the debt management plan?

The debt management plan is a form of agreement between a person and his creditors to make the terms of payment of loans in business easier as well as compatible for both parties. By the way, if your income is not high, your creditors can ask to make a debt management plan before giving you credit. There are many companies that specialize in making business debt management plans. You can ask them to do this for you and it will save your time.

How much it will cost to you?

The organizations that specialize in making depth management plans don’t offer their services for free. Companies that make it will charge a percent from your debt. They can negotiate with your creditors and take a part of your money that you pay to the creditors. Usually, this part is about 10-20%. You can always avoid services of these companies and try to manage the plan by yourself. In this situation you will have to communicate with your creditor face-to-face. Here a lot depends upon your negotiation abilities. Some creditors can refuse to trust you and all your attempts may lead to failure. In some situations creditors can ask you to provide documents that can verify your ability to repay them. This process will take more time, but it can also save money. However the final decision rests with you.

Pros and cons

Advantage of debt management plan is that this form of agreement between you and creditor remains informal. So, you don’t need to waste time on making big documents with signatures. At the same time, this can work against you because the creditor can change his mind during the process of paying debts. This can be particularly riskful for you as the borrower if you are involved with secured loans with assets used as caveats. Risk is also involved with business unsecured loans, but it is considerably lower than secured loans. One more positive point is that if you agree with your creditor to make a debt management plan, you can also negotiate to freeze interest payments. Also, there is a possibility to facilitate your monthly debt repayment installments, but this should be negotiated with those who gave you credit and your financial manager.

Like many other things in our world, debt management plans are needed to be used wisely. If you know that income of your business is not going to be high and you will need additional loans right from the beginning then Debt management plan will by no means be able to help you keep this in mind.